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Chicken Liver Timbales

Chicken liver timbales are baked liver mixtures served with optional cream sauce and asparagus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Liver Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Remove gills from chicken livers and press them through a colander.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, eggs, cracker dust, and butter, then add salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Butter timbale molds and fill them three-quarters full with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the molds in a pan of water and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for twenty-five minutes.

  2. Serve with cream sauce and asparagus, if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Chicken + livertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together383 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken livers
Provide the main flavor and, once pressed through a colander, a smooth body.
Eggs
Set when heated, holding the mixture together as a firm, tender custard.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard soft and tender.
Cracker dust
Absorbs liquid and helps bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.

The step that matters

Baking in a pan of water. Egg-based mixtures curdle and turn grainy when heated too fast. Setting the molds in water keeps the heat gentle, so the timbales stay smooth.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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